


Not so Close Anymore

by MONANIK



Series: Multiship Short Fics [8]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Canon - Manga, Canon Compliant, Growing Up, Hurt Hinata Shouyou, Jealousy, Kageyama Tobio is Bad at Feelings, Long-Distance Relationship, Love Triangles, M/M, Moving On, POV Hinata Shouyou, Pain, Pining, Protective Tsukishima Kei, Spoilers, Third Year Hinata Shouyou and Kageyama Tobio, Timeskip, Unrequited Love, Yearning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24117172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MONANIK/pseuds/MONANIK
Summary: To him it was exactly what he knew Kageyama said that day. It hadn’t been “see you later”, it’d been the most obvious “good luck out there” one could ever receive, and he’d foolishly fallen for it.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Kageyama Tobio/Tsukishima Kei
Series: Multiship Short Fics [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1155494
Comments: 25
Kudos: 131





	Not so Close Anymore

**Author's Note:**

> As inspired by @keijikids 's tweet :7 Go follow them!

He’d never thought twice about their relationship. Not back then. To him, Kageyama was a rival and a partner, and in high school the notion that he would ever morph into something more seemed bizarre at best and completely ludicrous at worst.

They weren’t exactly friends, nor were they enemies. Sometimes, every once in a blue moon when all the stars aligned in Kageyama-prickly-Tobio’s mind, he’d even agree to hang out with him, or him and the squad.

But in all their time together Kageyama was never anything more.

Until graduation, in the gym, when Shoyou’s world was shoved off its axis and the aftermath left him soaring through empty space, unstoppable lest some opposing force hurdled right into him.

And it did. Hurdle into him, that is.

At graduation, though, he had no clue it would, and perhaps that’s what made it all so shocking to him.

For their entire high school carrier Kageyama was always there. Standing, tossing, filing his nails, eating, snoring—in his peripheral. A presence never waning, never leaving his side. Holding up to the shadow in his name, truly.

And at graduation, when his lips pressed to Shoyou’s, everything clicked into place. The cool presence, the sunblock by his side that’d been from his angle so much more than a partner.

Suddenly his coldness and aversion to hanging out made sense. Of course he wouldn’t; who would hang out with their unrequited crush as he gushed about other things, other _people._

And the harshness, the kicks and hits and the glares. The yelling, the stupid nicknames that bordered on bullying. It all made perfect sense, in that moment behind the bleachers after they’d left the gym for the very last times.

And that kiss, desperate and so packed to the brim with years worth of yearning, washed over him like a bucket of ice-cold water. It left him shivering in a clarity he wished in that moment he’d possessed earlier. He wished, then, that Kageyama had had the balls to confess sooner. To just _tell him_ how he felt. Surely, he knew Shoyou wouldn’t be cruel even if he were to reject him?

But he scrapped that complaint, because if he intended to claim he knew Kageyama best he couldn’t demand such laughable things of the most emotionally constipated person on the planet.

So he remained quiet, and allowed his lips to linger on his; allowed their breaths to mingle for a moment when they parted. Swept his gaze across Kageyama’s shortened bangs, and the bluest of eyes finally revealed from beneath them, and in there he saw the love and adoration that had laid hidden for so long.

And he left him there, in the afternoon sun, with nothing but a promise to return and a request to wait for him.

He naively thought Kageyama’s grin was an agreement, an echo of their _“see you later”._

How wrong he’d been.

When Shoyou returned, years later, tanned and taller and with a few more foreign words to decorate his vocabulary with, and a few more people under his belt, he thought he’d find Kageyama waiting right where he’d left him.

Yearning for more.

But he’d been late for the reunion party and had completely missed the big toast in the beginning.

Noya’s place was bustling with people. The old Nekomas and the Fukorodanis and every other school they’d managed to bond so intensely with over the course of their run at Karasuno had gathered in Noya’s apartment for the evening.

The place reeked of booze and greasy, cheap food, and from every corner came the sound of music and happiness. People were drinking and hugging and patting each other’s back a little too aggressively. Some were chatting about work, others were calling for more shots and demanding they all play spin the bottle or something else just as irresponsible, and in the middle of it all stood Shoyou. Lost in the breeze of nostalgia. Invisible, for a moment, in the commotion, and allowed himself the rare moment of for once not standing out.

They all looked different, but the same still. Kuroo’s hair was cut shorter, and Semi had this really intense look about him, and if his eyes weren’t deceiving him Tanaka and Shimizu wore matching golden rings.

Chaos roamed the living-room, but there was no place Shoyou would rather be than right there.

And then, amidst it all, he spotted him. Leaning against the balcony outside, with one leg crossed lazily over the other. His back was turned to Shoyou, but even in the dark of a jungle he’d be able to make out the shape of Kageyama Tobio. Older and broader and _different_ or not. He knew the line of that back, and the firmness of those arms, and he knew those long legs that went on for miles and yet did the most incredible things on court. He knew those hands, ring adorned or not, and yet the one thing he barely knew, the one thing that tipped him off, was the grin spread wide across his face. The carefree, lighthearted grin that shone of utter bliss.

And by his side, with his arm draped half-heartedly over his waist, stood none other than Tsukishima. Smiling just as kindly though not as widely, gazing at Kageyama as if he’d put the stars in the sky for him and not merely laughed at whatever stupid joke he’d told him.

He’d been stupidly naïve to think Kageyama would wait so long, so long, for something he thought could and would never be. Without so much as a single confirmation to his feelings Shoyou had left him in the dark to suffer through it alone.

He’d broken his heart, that day behind the gymnasium, and he would never get it back, because somewhere along the way Tsukishima had swooped in an expertly pieced it back together, and in the process earned its trust and love.

So he could do nothing but stare as their gazes locked and Kageyama leaned in, and instead of kissing he did something far worse.

No, Kageyama wasn’t much for such trivialities. Kageyama loved from the bottom of his soul and to the tips of his fingers, and he did so in ways that seemed practically invisible to the regular stand-byer. But to Shoyou, the way he leaned his head against Tsukishima’s collarbones and let himself drown in his arms, all defenses down and crumbled to dust, meant more than the world.

To him it was exactly what he knew Kageyama said that day. It hadn’t been _“see you later”,_ it’d been the most obvious _“good luck out there”_ one could ever receive, and he’d foolishly fallen for it.

And now, as the crowd around awoke to his presence, and Bokuto’s delighted welcomes pierced his ears, there was nothing he could do about it but smile.

-

_We were always just that close  
Lips that felt just like the inside of a rose  
  
So, how come when I reach out my finger  
It feels like more than distance’s between us?_


End file.
